New Orleans recreation program hiring process raises eyebrows

The corporate headhunter who recruited applicants to lead New Orleans' distressed recreation program has said that former professional football player Reggie Williams is the cream of the crop among four finalists. Endorsements for Williams, a two-term Cincinnati City Council member who served as a Disney executive after his 14-year NFL career ended, also have come from former City Councilman Arnie Fielkow, a leader of the recreation reform effort, Councilwoman Stacy Head and community activists.

But as a months-long selection process winds down, concerns are growing that Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration is applying pressure on a search committee to eliminate Williams from the competition.

That perception is being fueled, in part, by the withdrawal two weeks ago of a fifth candidate, who said he was convinced that the fix was in for Vic Richard, the interim recreation director hand-picked by Landrieu 18 months ago.

Late last week, City Hall insiders speculated that while Richard, a New Orleans native and former Philadelphia recreation director, likely will be retained in some capacity, he didn't appear to have an inside track on the top job.

Which means the administration might be favoring one of the two other contenders: Charlene Braud, an ex-NORD director who now heads the Atlanta recreation department, and Wanda Durden, a technology executive who formerly ran the Recreation and Parks Department in Baltimore.

Williams supporters say they are mystified by the lack of enthusiasm among Landrieu staffers for Williams, a Dartmouth graduate who won awards for citizenship and sportsmanship while playing in two Super Bowls in the 1980s and oversaw the birth of the $100 million Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in the 1990s.

While administration officials -- and the mayor in particular -- have regularly praised Richard for his performance, mayoral spokesman Ryan Berni has said Landrieu isn't advocating for a candidate.

The six-member search panel has interviewed all four finalists and intends to narrow the list to three when it meets Wednesday. Plans call for the survivors to be summoned to a later session, where all commissioners and the public will get to question them.

The commission hopes to pick a winner in February.

Asked why all four finalists won't be invited to attend, Committee Chairman Roy Glapion said the strategy all along was to winnow a list that started with 13 names to three, and he's sticking with that plan.

"I'm not leaning toward anybody,'' Glapion said, adding that the committee will meet behind closed doors Wednesday to vet the candidates one more time before voting in open session to scratch one of them.

"It's not fair to talk about whether this one or that one might be cut,'' he said. "They're all good enough to be the next director.''

'Curious' developments

The end game in what's arguably the most critical decision facing the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission isn't playing out the way many recreation reformers envisioned when they campaigned in fall 2010 for a referendum that abolished the embattled recreation department.

The initiative, which was approved by nearly 75 percent of the electorate, was sold as a bold move to bring new leadership to NORD and provide the agency with a degree of autonomy from City Hall control.

View full sizeMichael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune archiveThe Willy Hall 9-10 football team heads out to play at NORD's Digby playground Oct. 13, 2011.

Fielkow, who resigned his City Council post last year to become CEO of the National Basketball Retired Players Association, calls Williams the "game changer New Orleans desperately needs.''

In an opinion piece published in Saturday's editions of The Times-Picayune, Fielkow urged commissioners to "not allow politics as usual ... to come into play and to honor the peoples' mandate'' for an independent commission.

"Williams represents exactly the type of seasoned, talented leader needed to bring New Orleans recreation back to greatness,'' Fielkow wrote.

Fielkow declined to comment about the political intrigue he referenced.

But youth advocate Babs Johnson, who was drafted by Fielkow to sit on the citizens committee that crafted the referendum, said she believes the Landrieu administration has decided that Williams isn't the right fit and is working to make sure he doesn't move to the next stage.

"We have to demand politics go to the side, and the children's needs must be considered first and foremost,'' Johnson said. "I feel the kids have fallen by the wayside as politics have reigned supreme.''

Johnson said she would like to see Williams chosen executive director and Richard as his top deputy.

"Vic Richard has proven himself under very difficult circumstances,'' she said. "He's been responsive to those who have been crying out for responses.''

To honor the will of those who voted for change, Johnson said: "We need to have a fresh pair of eyes.''

Williams' candidacy has even managed to unite two longtime antagonists: Head, the council's District B representative since 2006, and Tracie Washington, a lawyer and activist.

Head said last week that Williams "on paper appears to be the A-plus candidate'' and is the "clear choice,'' citing his experience in the NFL, politics and the corporate world. As an African-American male who has enjoyed success in sports and business, Head said Williams would be an ideal role model for the city's youth.

Based on a review of the résumés, Washington agreed, saying Williams is the most qualified.

"The (Landrieu) administration sold us on this (new commission) as a reform of NORD, which had not been working for 10, 15 years, that we need to bring in something better, fresher,'' Washington said.

Calling the proposal to abolish NORD "a difficult pill for the public to swallow,'' Washington said voters put their "faith and trust'' in Landrieu and supported it.

"But I find it curious that in the pool of the top four candidates, two were at the helm of NORD when they said the agency was in crisis,'' she said.

'Unnecessary rigidity'

Head, Washington and Johnson said all four applicants should be invited to the yet-to-be-scheduled public hearing.

Sticking to an earlier plan to reduce the field to three appears to be an example of "unnecessary rigidity,'' Head said. Faced with what is likely its most important decision, she said commissioners should be flexible.

Robert Clayton, who is heading the search for DHR International, has been outspoken in his support for Williams, saying at a meeting Jan. 11 that the other candidates "do not compare'' to the ex-Cincinnati Bengals linebacker.

Concerns that the Landrieu administration was meddling began as the search got under way last fall when Clayton suggested that applicants should have a bachelor's degree, and that a master's degree would be "preferred."

Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin, one of two Landrieu representatives on the committee, countered that a track record of success, rather than a credential, should be the most important qualification. Commissioners decided that a bachelor's degree or "any equivalent combination of education, training and experience" would be sufficient.

Neither Richard nor Braud has a college degree.

At a committee meeting last week, City Councilwoman Susan Guidry urged committee members to hire the best "qualified candidate based on all the information we have.'' Guidry didn't state a preference.

But like Fielkow, she noted that voters "voted for change, for a new NORD.''

Braud, a former physical education teacher, joined NORD in 1999 as athletics coordinator. She ran the agency from 2001 until 2005, when she resigned after Hurricane Katrina. She has run the Atlanta recreation program since late 2005.

Durden ran the Baltimore recreation program from June 2008 through November 2009. She was interim recreation director for Washington, D.C., in 2007. Since 2009, Durden has worked for Gray Matters Technology Services in Maryland.

Richard joined NORD as deputy director in 1994 and rose to the top post five years later. He left in 2000 to run Philadelphia's parks and recreation system, where he worked until 2008.

Citing his "institutional knowledge,'' Fielkow said Richard would be a good "top lieutenant'' to Williams.

But as the commissioners prepare to fill the job, he issued a warning: "The public will be watching whether the cornerstones of reform they supported are truly being honored: Independence from politics, ability to attract both public and private funding, and selection of the best and brightest to head New Orleans recreation for years to come.''